The Boston Bruins have a road problem that’s going to have to improve down the stretch if they hope to be a playoff team.
The Black and Gold dropped their fifth road game in a row – if one counts the outdoor Stadium Series game in Tampa as a road tilt – with a 3-1 loss to the Flyers at the Wells Fargo Center on Saturday afternoon, and some of the happenings in defeat had the familiar ring of other losses on the road this season.
The loss dropped the B’s to 11-13-4 on the road this season, a mark that will need to be improved as the Bruins play a slew of road games at the very end of the season when a wild card spot is likely to be clinched.
Most notably, the Bruins' power play couldn’t come through with a 0-for-3 performance in the game, and a few early penalties took the Bruins a bit out of the flow amidst an admittedly masterful performance in net from old friend Daniel Vladar. Vladar finished with 26 saves in a game where the Bruins outshot the Flyers by a 27-17 margin but fell behind 2-0 in the third period before giving up an empty net goal in the final minutes of the game.
It wasn’t a bad effort from the Bruins by any means, but they were just a little bit short against a Flyers team that’s on the outside of the playoff structure in the East. In other words, that’s a game that a playoff-caliber team truly needs as the postseason cushion is narrowing during the post-Olympics stretch run.
“We had our chances, but unfortunately we didn’t score,” said Marco Sturm to reporters after the game. “Tough bounces at the end and one little mistake and all of a sudden it was a 2-0 game. We did a lot of good things and I thought [Jeremy Swayman] was outstanding today, but at the end of the day we couldn’t find a way to score and we didn’t have the mentality to go to the net hard to the tough areas. We played on the outside way too much and it cost us a point.
“Geeks had some really good chances and we did that on the goal we scored, but they do a good job of keeping teams to the outside, and we weren’t willing to get to the inside.”
Most notably, Morgan Geekieenjoyed a handful of Grade-A scoring bids during the game, but time and time again, Vladar turned him away as the Bruins' offense looked like they needed a little help in this one.
It will be interesting to see if that trend continues for a Black and Gold team that has more-than-enough offense this season, but still has questions about their 5-on-5 effectiveness against quality teams on days like Saturday when the power play can’t provide any special teams offense. That will be something to keep an eye on as the NHL trade deadline looms on Friday and the Bruins have some decisions to make on what they are going to add, or potentially subtract, from the roster at the end of next week.
ONE TIMERS
*Fun little local news story on Charlie McAvoy’smom as the “gold medal mom” at the elementary school on Long Island where she’s been teaching for decades, and with some insight into what the McAvoy family was feeling during the Olympic gold medal experience.
Sometimes people forget how momentous these gold medal experiences are for an entire hockey family that has been on the lifelong journey with their player, where there aren’t always those “payoff” moments where the sacrifices, perseverance, and dedication come back full circle to a pinnacle moment of achievement like winning a gold medal for Team USA.
Long Beach’s Jennifer McAvoy became a “gold medal mom” thanks to the US Olympic men’s hockey team. Her son Charlie played on it & gave the McAvoy family golden moments they’ll never forget. @News12LI @BethpageUFSD pic.twitter.com/n9IpiHwuaA— Kevin Maher (@KMaherNews12) February 28, 2026
*Interesting scenario playing out in St. Louis as it appears that center Robert Thomas is going to be the big target at the NHL trade deadline as the kind of top-tier center that the B’s have been searching for the last few seasons. Hockey Night in Canada’s Elliotte Friedman said he believes there’s “a decent chance” that Thomas gets moved by the Friday trade deadline and he listed off the Utah Mammoth as one of the interested suitors currently in the mix for an impact player with other centers like Ryan O’Reilly, Nazem Kadri and Vincent Trocheckalso in the mix to be moved by the deadline.
“I think it could actually happen and I’m a bit surprised by that,” said Friedman. “When you first hear it, you kind of don’t believe that Robert Thomas is going to get traded. But I actually believe it could happen.”
The question with a guy like Thomas is going to be the high, prohibitive cost. The 26-year-old center has been a lock for 20 goals and 80 points over the last five seasons while settling into a role as a playmaking, 200-foot player, and also comes with good postseason experience going all the way back to famously getting blown up by Torey Krug way back in the 2019 Stanley Cup Finals.
Officially Torey Krug (47) days away from #NHLBruins regular season opener! There are so many Krug moments in Boston but one stands above all others. After being tangled up w Perron, Krug loses his helmet and becomes a human seeking missile to lay out Robert Thomas. 47 Days. pic.twitter.com/3tH6YIvMP2— Michael Sullivan (@_MikeSullivan) August 22, 2025
The Bruins will undoubtedly be asked to give up one of their good first-round picks (like the one acquired from Toronto for Brandon Carlo last season), a blue-chip prospect like Dean Letourneau, and more for a player in the prime of his career that’s locked in at an $8.1 million cap hit for the foreseeable future. The reported trade offer for Rasmus Andersson (Mason Lohrei, Matt Poitrasand a first-round pick) isn’t likely to get it done, so any trade package for Thomas would significantly alter Boston’s current retooling plan that looks to really be on an upward, one-time ascension at this point.
*It’s amazing to think there are still some fans out there who believe Tanner Jeannot’s contract signed with Boston was not a good one for the Bruins this past summer. The 28-year-old Jeannot has the second-highest point total of his NHL career and appears headed for double-digit goals this season, and he’s tangled with the biggest, baddest heavyweights around the NHL like his clear decision win over Nic Deslauriersin Saturday’s loss to the Philadelphia Flyers at Wells Fargo Center.
Tanner Jeannot is one tough hombre. I laughed at the hockey folks who didn’t understand the value ofthis player when he was signed as a free agent this summer pic.twitter.com/u7k4WASclc— Joe Haggerty (@HackswithHaggs) February 28, 2026
Jeannot has a $3.4 million cap hit on a salary cap with a ceiling going over $100 million in the next couple of seasons, and his intimidating level of toughness is something that protects and emboldens his B’s teammates. When youngsters like James Hagens, Will Zellers and Dean Letourneau come online for the Black and Gold in the next couple of years, it will be readily apparent what kind of value the 6-foot-2, 221-pounder is bringing to the table.
The contract handed out to Jeannot was the one likely earmarked for Trent Frederic before the Bruins decided to go in a different direction, and that correct decision has made all the difference for a B’s team playing with a much tougher edge to their game this season. Meanwhile, Frederic (three goals and four points in 58 games along with a minus-13) continues a stint in Edmonton that has people wondering if that is the worst contract handed out to anybody in the NHL in recent memory.
